A woman from Arizona has recently complained that a pharmacist refused to give her miscarriage medication because it went against his religious beliefs.
Nicole Arteaga said she got a prescription from her doctor after finding on an ultrasound that her baby had stopped developing at 9 weeks in utero. The woman added that the finding was “emotional” because she had really hoped to have that baby.
- When she went to a local Walgreens pharmacy, a male pharmacist refused to fill her prescription.
- He said it was against his religious beliefs of not killing a baby in their mother’s womb.
The woman claims that she left the locations “in tears.” She was even more in shame since her other son was with her. She told reporters that she wanted to keep discretion as the boy didn’t fully understand what was going on.
She criticized the pharmacist for not being “compassionate at all.” He had no compassion toward her feelings and bluntly said he was not going to give her the drugs.
He was pretty much like ‘no, not giving it to you,’
Artega recalls.
A Nightmarish Experience
She shared the incident on the pharmacy’s Yelp page to ensure that other women stay away from it. Artega expressed concern that the worker could refuse birth control or the morning-after pill to other women.
She described the incident as a “nightmare”. Her story went viral on Facebook and Twitter. When one social media user asked Walgreens what their prescription policies are, the pharmacy replied that pharmacists are not obliged to serve certain customers when there is a “moral objection.”
In addition, those pharmacists are required to ask a co-worker who has no moral objection to meet the customer’s needs.
Artega went to another Walgreens location on the same day and got her prescription filled.
Image Source: Flickr
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